


Defending General Dameron

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Come as Lube, Consensual Sex, Death of Paige Tico, Emotional Sex, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, Explicit Sexual Content between Darkpilot, Fix-It, Good Kylo Ren, Hand Jobs, Kylo Ren Lives, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, Leia Apologizes To Poe For Slapping Him, Leia Organa Lives, M/M, Multiple Orgasms, Past Rape/Non-Con Outside of Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren, Past forced pregnancy, Poe Dameron deserves better, Porn with Feelings, Protective Kylo Ren, Survivor’s Guilt, because Palpatine’s evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:13:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In which Kylo’s protective streak shows up regarding Poe.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Kudos: 35
Collections: The_Multishipper_Post_TROS_Happy_Place_Collection, Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	Defending General Dameron

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Rivals Working Together
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Warnings: This isn’t Leia friendly. Also, there’s a brief mention of forced pregnancy, so...watch out.

Adjusting to life back at the Resistance Base hasn’t been easy, Kylo’s known that.   
  
Kylo. It’s the name that he’s chosen in the end, because it feels the most right. He can remember his feelings of discontent about the name “Ben Solo”, how it just hadn’t felt right in the end. Ben, the name of a man that he had never met, and Solo, the name that an Imperial Officer had given to his father, of all things. (Kylo still winces, thinking of that day on the bridge. No doubt as he should)  
  
Poe hasn’t spoken to him yet. Kylo can’t say he blames Poe — he supposes the way that Poe looks at him says it all. That look, like he can’t believe Kylo’s here, with him (Kylo knows the feeling all too well). All mixed in with emotions that Kylo can only describe as “conflicted" — pain, anger, old affection for his old friend...  
  
Old friend. That’s the best thing Kylo can say. He’d loved Poe, still does — it’s impossible not to love this beautiful, compassionate, talented man. Ever since they were both children. Tai had been sympathetic about his hesitation to approach Poe, that feeling like Poe was far too Light for him.   
  
_“You’re exactly as you should be, Ben, and Poe would be a fool not to realize it.”_  
  
Kylo wonders if it’s still true. He misses Tai, despite himself — Tai was one of those many people who gave up on him in the end. He just wonders what Tai would think of him now, in this strange new world where most people seem to be more in disbelief that the former Supreme Leader is the son of two Rebel heroes. They seem too confused to approach him. Kylo hasn’t expected “confusion" to be an emotion that he evokes, but here he is.   
  
He keeps to himself. And to Rey, of course — they’re not together despite what some of the Resistance speculates. Palpatine had told him that Rey was good as his family (while bragging, much to Kylo’s fury, about how he had nonconsensually impregnated Shmi Skywalker as part of his plans. It had planted the seeds of his plan, to play the subservient, loyal whelp and turn on Palpatine when the time came. It had made going back to the Resistance easier as well), and despite the fact that their familial connection as cousins is odd, it feels right. To think Ben Solo felt alone, when he had the biggest family in the galaxy.   
  
_“You can’t hide from Poe forever.”_ Rey had said. She’s right, as usual — Kylo just wonders how he’ll explain it all to Poe.   
  
***  
  
He’s working on his lightsaber — his new one, as he’d rather melodramatically thrown his old one into the sea on Kef Bir — when he hears the argument. He can tell it’s Poe’s voice, and a rather sneering-sounding woman’s voice.   
  
“I couldn’t let the Resistance be blown to bits.” Poe doesn’t sound pleading as much as frustrated. “The Dreadnaught...I just knew...”  
  
“So people like Paige Tico were just cannonfodder?” the woman sneers. “I should have known that. I knew that you were threatened by the very idea of a woman in charge, but now you saw Paige as nothing more than just someone you could sacrifice to get to your goal? Boy, I can’t imagine Rose hearing about this, her big sister just being cannonfodder...”  
  
“Don’t you dare,” Poe says. He sounds angry, feels angry — and more than that, there’s a sort of guilt and grief that Kylo wants to soothe — if not for the last time he entered Poe’s mind. Even the fact that Snoke had coerced him into doing it under threats of killing Poe doesn’t assuage that feeling Kylo has, of being weak.   
  
“Or what? At least she’d see you as you really are. Just a weak, pathetic sonuvaschutta who can’t lead, and has never done anything right in his life — ”  
  
Kylo can’t help himself. He’s not supposed to pick fights with Resistance members; he only hopes that the Resistance council (such as Rose Tico) will take the “defending Poe’s honor” defense.   
  
Kylo’s lightsaber’s in progress, so he can’t ignite it to prove a point. The shock of the former Supreme Leader coming out of his self-imposed near-solitude is intimidating enough. And the woman, a bomber from the looks of her, seems just as shocked.   
  
“You’re wrong about General Dameron,” Kylo says. “He’s a better being than you could ever hope to be.”  
  
“What’s your problem, Ren?” the woman snaps.   
  
“He did war. People die in war. Or did you, in all your naivetie, think that war was something where the opposing sides made daisy chains and talked about their feelings? Hux and Canady did not go easy on the Resistance, and neither would General Dameron go easy on the First Order.”  
  
The woman’s sputtering, but Kylo cuts her off. “In addition, at least he actually respects sentient life. You, I imagine, would draw a blaster on the first person who got the cup of caf before you. Your calling Paige Tico cannonfodder — dear Force, even when I was a monster, at least I admitted I was a monster. You’re the sort of monster who thinks she’s better than everyone else, even though she’s done nothing to prove it.”  
  
“Kylo, really — ” Poe says, but Kylo’s not done.   
  
“You are incredibly lucky that you’ve never been in a position of leadership before,” Kylo says. “I was never a good leader, and neither was Snoke. You would put both of us to shame with your incompetence. You know nothing about leadership, or how strong General Dameron is. How talented. How he sees the good in others — even Hux, apparently. I’m sure he’d even see the good in you...even though your selection of good qualities is lacking at best.”  
  
The woman narrows her eyes. “You know, I thought I could get General Dameron to take responsibility,” she says. “I didn’t expect _you_ to try defending his honor.”  
  
“I’m kriffing proud of it,” Kylo says.   
  
The woman stalks off. Kylo’s breathing hard — he normally would have kept to himself, but how dare this foul scow even suggest Poe is anything less than perfect?  
  
***  
  
Poe talks to him after. It’s one of those things where Poe actually looks confused confronting Kylo. “I don’t get it,” he says. “I mean, you don’t get anything out of it.”  
  
“Who says I have to?” Kylo says. "I couldn’t just let this...girl insult you...”  
  
Poe shrugs. “She does that a lot,” he says. Then, more seriously, “She was part of the New Republic’s bombing fleet. Well, one of them. She blames me for losing the bombing fleet. Quite a few people do.”  
  
Kylo tilts his head. “Apparently, they don’t realize people die in war.”  
  
“Yeah,” Poe says, a bit uneasily, "I think you’d know something about that."  
  
“I do.” Kylo can’t really refute that point. He’s taken lives. It got easier over time, of course. For a certain definition of “easier”. He doesn’t know why this woman seems to think Poe making a tough decision was somehow worse than Kylo purposely, pointlessly killing his own father, or ordering the massacre of multiple villages. Or even something as simple as failing to stop Starkiller Base from destroying the Hosnian system.   
  
He’s got a bigger bodycount, and a more pointless bodycount, than Poe ever will.   
  
“Which is why,” Kylo says, “She’s an idiot.”  
  
Poe winces. “Harsh.”  
  
“But true. After all, you did battle. It’s something she knows nothing about. And she knows nothing about you.”  
  
“I guess. Then again, she’s not the only one.”  
  
“Not the only one?" Kylo doesn’t like the sound of that.   
  
“It’s no big deal,” Poe says, a little too firmly.   
  
But he’s a bad liar. Kylo knows that much.   
  
“Why do you even care?” Poe says.   
  
“Because me hurting you was bad enough. I wish I hadn’t done it. I was weak.” He barely manages to stop himself from saying that he was always weak. He can’t crack — even though he wants to.   
  
“So you...”  
  
Kylo nods. And he tells Poe everything. Poe listens, and it’s clear that he’s conflicted. Finally, he says, “That’s...kriffed up. I mean, I don’t like what you did and that’s an understatement, but...I guess in a way you were as much a prisoner as I was.”  
  
Kylo swears that he can’t breathe for a moment. "I was weak..."  
  
“You turned away in the end.”  
  
“Too late.”  
  
“I turned my life around, Kylo,” Poe says. “You can too.”  
  
***  
  
They continue their talk in Poe’s room, BB-8 making it quietly clear that he’s on the lookout for if Kylo hurts Poe again. Poe tells him — about how Kylo's mother actually slapped him across the face, in front of everyone (and no one made a move to help him), while demoting him. All while hypocritically disparaging him for jumping in an X-wing and blowing something up (how exactly was Yavin saved from destruction, Kylo can’t help but quietly rage, what about that? Why was she willing to give Kylo’s weak, disgusting uncle medals for killing so many people, including Death Star prisoners who weren’t lucky enough to escape, but not Poe? She couldn’t have possibly, randomly decided to grow a conscience) and disgracing Paige Tico’s memory. (Miraculously, neither Rose Tico nor Jessika Pava decided to turn against Kylo’s mother after that)  
  
“I hate her,” Kylo says. He’s talking quickly. He doesn’t care. “That physically abusive, hypocritical, Skywalker-worshipping _weakling._ Why is she a General of a Resistance if she barely has the stomach for war?”  
  
Poe’s the one to speak up. “She was upset...”  
  
“Over a soldier doing her duty? Over you trying to save lives, not just in the Resistance, but down below on D’Qar as well? Does she think that no one else lived there except the Resistance?” A beat. “Then again, I suppose she and Skywalker always only cared for those in their inner circle.”  
  
Poe looks like he’s about to object before saying, "She’s your mother.”  
  
“And she hurt you. It’s one thing for her to hate me. To give up on me at Crait, and possibly trick me long enough for Rey to kill me. It’s another to hurt you. You’ve been hurt enough.”  
  
He wants to reach out, smooth a finger over that one lingering scar from the interrogation room. They’ve both got scars. Kylo knows he’s got the longest scar, although he can safely say he earned it.   
  
“So you feel guilty?” Poe says.   
  
“Not just that,” Kylo says.   
  
He doesn’t know how to say this. How, as Ben Solo and Kylo Ren alike, he would have damned the galaxy to keep Poe safe.   
  
“Did I mean anything to you?” Poe says.  
  
“Before I was even a man, you were important, and you are now.”  
  
Kylo’s gloved hand brushes over Poe’s own, bare hand. He supposes that there is a sort of symbolism in there.   
Thank the Force.   
  
***  
  
Speaking with Leia isn’t easy. Kylo’s angry, and he can feel it all but pulsing in him. How dare his mother treat Poe Dameron, who sees her as all but a goddess, like he’s not important? Like he’s just there to be abused? No one in the Resistance knows Poe. At least Kylo does.   
  
“You’re right,” Leia says. “I was angry — but slapping Poe wasn’t professional of me. Or, more importantly, kind. I suppose the war was wearing on me. Too many deaths. But people do die in war. Unfortunate as it is.” She sighs. “Poe...I don’t know if it’s too late. But I am sorry. I am sorry that I barely did anything right with you.”  
  
Of course Poe forgives her. It isn’t just that he looks up to Leia — it’s that he sees the good in other beings no matter what. He can’t help but love people. Love them enough to move the galaxy for them.   
  
Even if he loved Kylo, it would just be an extension of his kind nature, wouldn’t it?   
  
Kylo can at least thank Leia. He doesn’t forgive Leia, but she’s made an effort. A small effort, but it’s better than nothing, at least.   
  
***  
  
It’s long after they speak with Leia that Poe and Kylo leave. It’s a relief, at least, to have gotten an apology out of Kylo’s mother for how she treated Poe. Kylo turns to look at Poe. “Are you all right?”  
  
Poe nods. “Didn’t expect you to stand up for me. Why?”  
  
“I didn’t get to tell you seven years ago,” Kylo says, “And I should have. But I love you.” He wonders, after saying it, if he said it too quickly. Then he says, “Even after everything I did to you, everything you had to do, you’re so bright. So brilliant. So incredibly brave. And...I know it’s a miracle if you feel the same for me, but...”  
  
Poe cuts him off with a kiss that’s almost like the both of them are drowning and the other’s air. When he draws away, Kylo’s gasping. Apparently, Poe’s been meaning to do that for a while. Seven years? Who knows.   
  
“Kylo,” Poe says. “You’re the only one I’ve wanted for a long time. Tried to hide it behind jokes...wasn’t funny...”  
  
“It’s okay,” Kylo says, softly. “I shouldn’t have been so afraid either.” A beat. “Come on. We need a room. After all,” he says, smiling a bit, “A good man would give you a bed.”   
  
Poe nods. He seems just as eager for the physical contact as Kylo is.   
  
***  
  
They make their way to Kylo’s quarters, their kisses and caresses searching, desperate, trying to recapture the other after seven years. Seven long years. Clothes fall away, and Kylo swears that Poe is so breathtakingly gorgeous that it’s only confirmed that he doesn’t want anyone else. He strokes Poe’s cheek, and says, “I’ve never seen anyone more perfect.”  
  
Poe swallows. “So are you.”  
  
Navigating is a bit of a case of improvisation. Yes, that. Trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. What Poe likes. And considering that Poe is very rambly, very giving with the praise even as Kylo lavishes attention on his body, Kylo can only assume that he’s doing a lot right.   
  
(The Bond between him and Rey fortunately hasn’t activated. For once, it does what Kylo wants it to do)  
  
He leaves kisses and nibbles where he can, around Poe’s nipples, on his belly, along his inner thighs. Poe’s already rambling about how well Kylo’s doing. So incredibly well. Kylo can’t help but feel so very proud, that he’s affecting Poe so well.   
  
He knows he wants to give Poe everything. Everything, to make up for what he’s done. Everything, because the galaxy is too much of a sliver for what Kylo wants to give. And when Poe begs Kylo to touch him, Kylo can’t deny him.   
  
He owes him that much.   
  
He touches Poe, twists between his legs, and Poe’s groaning in pleasure. Kylo can’t help but watch him — the arch of his body, how his neck is exposed, how his dark eyelashes contrast with his bronze skin.  
  
Poe comes after a while, and it’s explosive — it’s like a grenade going off. Of course, Kylo isn’t done. Poe deserves a bed.   
  
Poe’s okay with it when Kylo asks, and, using the sticky remnants of Poe’s climax, Kylo kriffs him with his fingers, relishing in those noises that Poe makes — the whimpers, the desperate hisses and moans.   
  
“You like what I’m doing?” Even the idea that Kylo’s bringing pleasure to someone as beautiful and amazing as Poe...it’s vindication.   
  
“Yeah,” Poe says. “I think I can take you.”  
  
Kylo never thought he’d be praying his penis is small enough, but he at least hopes he won’t injure Poe. Even as he checks in with Poe, gets Poe’s affirmation that yes, yes dammit, he wants Kylo in him, and enters him...  
  
Kriff. Kriff, Poe’s warm. Warm and tight. The way Poe’s groaning, begs Kylo again to touch him (and Kylo can’t deny him, not truly)...Kylo has to think of dry lightsaber building tips to keep from coming too soon. He moves, touching Poe even as he moves in him, and he holds back as long as he can. He’s aware that he’s muttering things — apologies, promises, endearments that all seem to blur together. And then Poe explodes in his hand a second time, and the spasming of his hole around Kylo’s shaft...  
  
Kylo comes, practically explodes in Poe. Eventually it stops, and he slips out, feeling tired, but also foolishly happy, complete.   
  
He gathers Poe to him. They’re both sticky. Kylo knows it’s worth it.   
  
"I can’t believe you’re here,” Poe says. “It has to be a dream. I’ll wake up, and Threepio will be bugging me with paperwork or something...”  
  
Kylo laughs softly. “I can imagine he’d be a very...persistent alarm clock.” Then, “I’m here. I’m very real. And I’m not leaving you again.”  
  
“Yeah.” Poe sounds a bit dazed as he slips into sleep. “You’re not.”


End file.
